Speaker Ryan Is No Moderate.

Speaker Ryan continues to be mentioned as an alternative to the extreme policies of Trump and Cruz among increasingly desperate members of the Republican establishment – a laughable remedy given the overwhelming evidence that it was in fact House Republicans, like Paul Ryan, that fostered Trump’s rise. As highlighted in Vox, Ryan has consistently pushed extreme, out-of-touch policies on issues ranging from Social Security and Medicare to tax cuts for the wealthy that place him as far to the right, if not further on certain topics, than Trump or Cruz.

According to Vox:

This idea of Ryan as a serious adult with a “moderate congressional track record” is a tempting one, but let’s not fool ourselves. Ryan talks a good game about caring about poverty and rejecting the “makers versus takers” frame of many conservatives. But in his time as a national figure, he’s been a consistent advocate of aggressive cuts to the social safety net and to Social Security and Medicare, and for tax reforms at least as regressive as those envisioned by Cruz and Trump.

This idea of Ryan as a serious adult with a “moderate congressional track record” is a tempting one, but let’s not fool ourselves. Ryan talks a good game about caring about poverty and rejecting the “makers versus takers” frame of many conservatives. But in his time as a national figure, he’s been a consistent advocate of aggressive cuts to the social safety net and to Social Security and Medicare, and for tax reforms at least as regressive as those envisioned by Cruz and Trump.

Paul Ryan is many things. But he is no moderate.

Paul Ryan is coming for your Social Security and Medicare

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Taken all together, is this plan more “moderate” than those of Donald Trump or Ted Cruz? Not at all. Trump has been vocal in arguing against any cuts to Social Security or Medicare, placing him well to the left of Ryan, one of Washington’s biggest supporters of Social Security and Medicare cuts, on the issue. Cruz supports personal accounts,progressive price indexing, and gradually increasing the retirement age, as well asRyan-esque privatization of Medicare, putting him basically in line with Ryan on entitlement issues.

Ryan wants to dramatically cut programs for the poor

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Is this agenda more moderate than Trump or Cruz? Not really. Trump basically shares Ryan’s agenda for the poor, calling for block-granting Medicaid and attacking the food stamps program. Same with Cruz. If anything, the two have been much less detailed than Ryan in explaining how they plan to increase poverty in America.

Ryan’s tax cuts are about as massive as Trump’s

. . .

His tax proposals bear a strong resemblance to those of Donald Trump. Trump also wants tax brackets of 10 and 25 percent, plus an additional one of 20. Both would increase the standard deduction and cut the corporate rate. Trump’s corporate cut is bigger — down to a rate of 15 percent, not 25 as under Ryan’s plan — but unlike Ryan he’s never proposed eliminating taxes on capital gains and dividends. Ted Cruz has only a 10 percent flat tax on income, but subjects capital gains to it, and borrows Ryan’s idea of turning the corporate tax into a VAT.

So despite Ryan’s repeated attempts to rebrand himself as a moderate, pragmatic leader, his record shows him to be anything but. He’s a doctrinaire, down-the-line supply-sider who wants massive cuts to safety net and social insurance programs and equally massive tax cuts for the wealthy. There is very little daylight between him, Donald Trump, and Ted Cruz on these issues, and in some cases he’s actually to the right of Trump. Yes, he’s more supportive of immigration reform, and yes, he avoids engaging in the kind of virulent Islamophobia and racism that Trump does. But when it comes to policy nuts and bolts, they’re not far apart.

#RyanRealityCheck

Speaker Paul Ryan took over the reins of the unruly House Republican Conference with lofty ambitions for a "Year of Ideas." Follow this space as we bring the Speaker back down to Earth, with the help of the House Freedom Caucus and the GOP presidential field.